Wrong Place, Right Time
by subwaytonowhere
Summary: Nick has been dreaming of attending Wellington State University since he took his first tour of the campus in 10th grade. Now that he's here, however, things aren't quite what they hoped. His only saving grace is Jeff, a boy who ended up in the wrong classroom whom Nick has been crushing on ever since. If only Nick could work up the nerve to talk to him. Also posted on AO3.


**Hello. I've returned with some Niff. I don't own Nick and Jeff, that's my disclaimer.** **This fic is written so that Nick and Jeff did not attend high school together, but rather met in college. It's loosely based off of some of my my experiences at college so far. Ideally, I'd like to write a part two to this, but it depends on when I'll have time.**

* * *

Ever since the spring of his sophomore year, Nick had dreamed of making Wellington State University his home. So many hours he'd spent daydreaming of walking into the warm, brick buildings for class, eating under the flags of dozens of countries in the cafeteria, hanging out with people he wasn't entirely sure even existed. He'd also dreamed of swimming in the campus pool, walking through the historic downtown, drinking in the gorgeous color of the fall leaves before it turned to a crisp, cold winter. Never had Nick thought that he could be so homesick for a place he hadn't even moved to yet.

Now that he was here, however, it couldn't feel further away from home.

Nick had been talking to his roommate, Keith, since the day they'd gotten their housing assignments. Keith was already well aware that Nick was a morning person, and that nothing annoyed him more than people who pressed the snooze alarm. He knew that Nick had a strange obsession with _Duck Dynasty_ and a strange addiction to lemon lime soda. Nick already knew that Keith was a seriously dedicated academic, and there were certain hours when he needed absolute silence. Keith also liked to get up early to go for runs, which fit well with the fact that Nick was a morning person.

Also, Keith was bringing the fridge and microwave. Two less things that Nick had to buy.

By the time that move-in day finally came, Nick felt like he knew Keith well. While waiting in the line to check-in, Nick tried sending a text to Keith, which went unanswered. He figured that Keith must already be here, getting set up in their dorm. Finally, he made it to the front of the line, getting his key and his folder of housing information.

His family drove him over to the parking lot nearest to his dorm building, Branson Hall. He grabbed a big tub of stuff and ran up all of the stairs to the second floor. Quickly, he managed to find his room, stopping dead in front of his door.

On all of the doors in the hallway, there were paper cut-outs in the shapes of soccer balls. Written on the soccer balls were the names of the residents of each room. There was only one soccer ball on Nick's door, which read his name. There wasn't one for Keith. Maybe Keith had just decided to take it off.

Nick tried turning the door handle. It was locked. Perhaps Keith had already finished moving in. He was probably at the dining hall, or maybe he'd run out to the local Walmart to get some last-minute things he needed.

Nick unlocked the door, but the room was completely empty. He was the first one here. Maybe Keith was still stuck in line. Or maybe he just hadn't arrived. There were still six hours before check-in ended.

"Maybe he got into one of the major-specific houses," his mom had said.

"But just two days ago he told me that he was excited to meet me in person. Why would he say that if he wasn't going to be rooming with me?" Nick replied.

"Maybe he was just excited to see you around," his dad said.

"Still, he probably would have told me."

"Maybe he wasn't sure how."

Nick's parents helped him get moved in. Then, they took him to Walmart to buy him some stuff that he'd needed. His mom had insisted on getting him a microwave. Nick tried to talk her out of it on the grounds that he wanted to figure out what the roommate situation was for sure.

They walked out of Walmart with food and a microwave, and they returned to Nick's dorm. When he opened the door back up, he discovered that he was still alone.

Nick's mom cried when it came time to say goodbye. Nick's dad gave him a quick hug, told him he was proud of him, and that a fridge would be on the way. Nick thanked him, and then his dad talked his mom into leaving. He walked them back out to their car, gave them each one more hug, and let them go.

When he got back to his dorm, he cried.

Finally, it had been time for dinner, and Nick made his way to the dining hall. He sat right under the flags, just as he'd always dreamed of doing. Somehow, though, it wasn't as satisfying as Nick thought it would feel. That's when his phone buzzed.

 _I don't know what happened, but I got put in room 252. I guess this means I'm not rooming with you this time around. Oh well. I still hope to see you around and get to know you._

So that was it. He was all alone.

It wouldn't have bothered him, but it was just that Nick was so shy. He'd hoped that having a roommate would help him feel less lonely, at least until he had the chance to get out and make some friends.

It seemed that the world was not in the business of doing him any favors.

* * *

No one had ever told Nick about the trains. But later, in the middle of the night, he could hear one passing through town. It wasn't intrusive, or even all that loud, but it was just so unfamiliar.

* * *

On day 2, Nick had general education testing. He was in a classroom set up like a lecture hall to take the test.

Nick was a marketing major, but a music minor. It seemed that the arts could only be profitable when they were being used to persuade someone to buy something, and Nick still wasn't sure that tacking on the music minor was a good idea. He knew that he could put his drawing skills to use in the field of marketing and advertising, but still take some music classes to ease the pressure of his tough business classes.

So, he'd been stuffed in a room with the other marketing majors, and then shipped off to the business hall for the event they called "Meet your Major". The Marketing professors all introduced themselves, and then they went around the room and shared their name and why they were there. Nick only half-listened, until the line reached a blond boy sitting in the corner.

There was one slight problem: he was cute. Like, cute cute.

"I think I'm in the wrong room," the boy said.

"Oh no dear, you're fine," one of the professors, an elderly lady whose name Nick couldn't remember said. "Just tell us your name."

"Jeff Sterling," he said. The lady turned around and wrote his name in loopy cursive on the blackboard. Nick had never seen such a beautiful name in his life. "I'm a math major."

"You are in the wrong room," the lady said. "Mister Strine, will you please take Jeff over to the engineering building?"

One of the other professors stood up, and so did Jeff. Together, they left.

Nobody in the room seemed to really care, but Nick couldn't shake the blonde boy from his mind.

He didn't even have any friends yet, but he already had a crush. Go figure.

* * *

Nick honestly wasn't sure what he was doing. Yet, he couldn't quite stop himself from typing Jeff's name into Facebook.

When Jeff popped up, Nick's heart almost stopped. In his profile picture, he was wearing a suit and a tie. This must have been a pre-prom picture. Even better, all of his posts were set to public.

 _You know you're in college when the professor doesn't help you fill out your personal information on the bubble sheet._

Nick stifled a laugh, but then glanced over his shoulder. He was alone in his dorm, but somehow he felt like he was going to get caught looking at Jeff's Facebook. Then, Nick got the feeling that he was being creepy, and closed out of Jeff's Facebook.

No more Facebook stalking for him.

* * *

The weekend trudged on slowly, but classes finally began. Nick had exactly one class in the engineering hall: his trigonometry lecture.

He wasn't quite sure why they just called it the engineering hall; the building was also used for computer science and math classes. Nick had his math class in the building, which meant that there was a chance that he might see Jeff Sterling.

Jeff Sterling. Nick had been saying that name in his mind all weekend. He liked the way it sounded. It was weird, but he just couldn't seem to help himself.

As if on cue, Nick looked up from his table to see Jeff walking in. He quickly scanned around the room. There weren't many seats left.

It seemed like something straight out of a movie.

"Hey, can I sit here?" Jeff said. Nick looked at him and nodded. Jeff took a seat next to him, but didn't say anything more. It seemed a little weird that a math major would only be taking trigonometry, but Nick tried not to think too much of it.

One minute after the scheduled lecture start time, the professor walked in and began writing his name on the board. Underneath it, he wrote the class name.

"This isn't Calc 1?" Jeff said.

"No sir," the professor said. "You're looking for room 311."

"Isn't this 311?"

"No, this is 211. If you walk out this door and take a right, the stairs are at the end of this hallway."

"Thank you."

He stood up and dashed out the door, and the professor launched right into his lecture.

* * *

Nick already knew plenty of dumb, stupid facts about Jeff.

He had a strange sense of style, wearing button-downs over t-shirts that always clashed with the design. Despite that fact that it was unseasonably warm for fall, he wore a lot of jeans. He also had these strange, brown shoes that had an open toe but were otherwise a closed shoe. No matter how strange he looked sometimes, Nick always found him adorable.

No matter what crazy combinations Jeff sometimes came up with, he also seemed to have a liking for plain brown t-shirts. Nick thought that he looked the hottest with a plain brown t-shirt.

Somewhat accidentally, Nick picked up on Jeff's dining hall habits as well. Jeff always came ten minutes into the scheduled meal time. He'd glide through the lines, grabbing food, and then he'd go get his drink. He always got blue Powerade from the fountain machine, and he always sat on the right side of the cafeteria.

Nick would pick a covert corner so he could watch Jeff without Jeff knowing. Each time he ate in the cafeteria, though, he knew that he was passing up on a golden opportunity.

Jeff always ate alone. Oftentimes, he'd put in his earbuds and listen to music while he ate, or play on his phone.

It would be so easy to just walk up to him and introduce himself, and then ask to sit with him. However, Nick's own shyness often got the best of him.

The world was doing him a favor, but Nick was deliberately ignoring all of the signs.

But there was so much more that Nick wanted to know. Nick wanted to know why Jeff decided to become a math major, and what kind of music he liked to listen too, and what his lips tasted like, and what his favorite color was and his most embarrassing childhood memory.

Nick already knew a lot of dumb, stupid things about Jeff. But it didn't stop him from wanting to know more.

* * *

Nick had reached the point where he wasn't sure whether he was trying to talk himself into talking to Jeff, or talking himself out of it.

While he attempted to figure it out, he tried the blue Powerade.

* * *

Jeff didn't have his earbuds in today. He was just playing on his phone absentmindedly. The dining hall was relatively full, as it was on weekends. In a way, it felt like now or never.

The idea kind of wanted to make Nick puke, but he knew that he had to do it. He had to go talk to Jeff.

Nick waddled up to Jeff's table, his hands full with a plate of food and a glass of soda. His mouth had gone dry, and his stomach was twisting. The plan was simple: he'd start with asking if he could sit with Jeff, and if Jeff said yes, he'd sit down and introduce himself.

The worst that he can do is say no, Nick thought, but it still seemed like a big risk.

Then, he reached Jeff's table.

"I—uh—can I sit here?" Nick asked.

"Sure," Jeff said, kicking out one of the chairs in front of him.

"Thanks," Nick said, setting down his plate and cup before taking a seat. "My name is Nick. Nick Duval. What's yours?"

"Jeff Sterling," he replied after swallowing a bite of pizza. "Major?"

"Marketing. Minor in Music. Yours?"

"Mathematics. I'm on the teacher certification track, so I have to take education classes instead of a minor."

"Oh. That's cool."

The conversation seemed to have reached a dead end. It's not like he could ask what Jeff planned to do with that. He obviously was planning on teaching.

"Music, huh?" Jeff said.

"Yeah."

"You planning on writing commercial jingles or something?"

"No. I just like music. Marketing's a good major, it kind of blends the world of art and business, but music's always been such a big part of my life…I just couldn't imagine my college career without it."

"Really? What instrument do you play?"

"I sing."

"Oh, that's cool. Did you do choir in high school?"

"Glee club. Except we did all of our stuff acapella."

"That's really awesome."

"Want to see a video?"

"Oh, sure," Jeff said.

Nick felt like a complete idiot. It just seemed so forward. But still, Nick pulled out his phone and pulled up the video from regionals a year ago. It was of his group singing "Uptown Girl" by Billy Joel, and he had the solo. Of course, now that he thought about it, he realized that this probably wasn't the most appropriate choice of song to show Jeff.

Jeff took his phone and plugged his earbuds in. Nick watched his face carefully as he listened. A smile spread across Jeff's face, and he started bobbing his head in time with the music. The video ended, and Jeff unplugged his earbuds from Nick's phone and slid it back to him.

"You're a really good singer," Jeff said.

"Thanks," Nick said. "Did you ever play any instruments?"

"Yeah. Guitar, bass, and I also sing," he answered.

Could Jeff be any more amazing?

The conversation began to die down again, and Nick was starting to feel desperate. He'd gotten so far. He didn't want to end up back at square zero.

"Why are you blushing?" Jeff asked.

Was he blushing? Crap. He was. Now that Jeff had mentioned it, he could feel his cheeks burning.

"I—uh," Nick started to say. Jeff leaned slightly forward, listening for what Nick had to say next. The silence was equally as unnerving as the song on _Jeopardy_.

"Come on, what is it?" Jeff said, a large grin stretching across his face.

"I think you're really cute," Nick blurted before he could stop himself. Nick dropped his head down onto the table. Jeff started to chuckle.

"I think you're really cute too," Jeff said. Nick picked his head up off of the table.

"Really?" he said.

"Totally," Jeff replied. "Look, I've got a friend who lives locally, and he's a musician. He plays at different places in the area. He's doing a show in town at a bookstore on Friday night. How about we go, and then afterwards, I'll take you to get the best burger you've ever had in your entire life."

"You're asking me on a date?"

Jeff nodded. "Come on, what do you say?"

"It's a date," Nick said.

* * *

 **That's all, folks. Hope you enjoyed it, and I hope to be back with more.**


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